


Peace is a lie

by ninedragons



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25729045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninedragons/pseuds/ninedragons
Summary: Just a short elaboration on an event in the game from my point of view. Contains spoilers for the Sith Warrior story. Non graphic.
Relationships: Female Sith Warrior / Malavai Quinn
Kudos: 6





	Peace is a lie

By rights he shouldn’t even be alive. Captain Malavai Quinn could not understand, where his plan went wrong. He had painstakingly calibrated the assault droids, after analysing Lord Nya Malice’s fighting style for weeks. It should have been a clean death, quick and painless.  
Then, once she was dead, he would have overloaded the reactor core and would have gone down with the ship. No one would ever learn the truth what had happened to Darth Baras’ former apprentice and her most trusted advisor. His obligation to Darth Baras fulfilled, it would have been his final act of defiance. He was honour bound to assassinate her, but no one could force him to live on without her.

It all went without a hitch, he got her to the ship, ostensibly to steal passcodes for the assault on Corellia. But once he sprung his trap and informed her of his true intentions, it all went wrong.  
He would never forget the expression in her eyes.  
“And here I thought you loved me…”  
He had expected cold fury or burning hate at his betrayal but this - it was something new. In this moment he saw with absolute clarity what a fool he had been.

Then she tore through his meticulously prepared droids without a hint of effort.

In every plan there is the possibility that things can go wrong and, being the tactical advisor he was, he had also taken that into account. Should Nya Malice survive the assassination attempt, she would not hesitate to kill him for betraying her trust in the worst possible way. The result was the same. He had never planned to leave this ship alive. He did not deserve it.

And yet, here he was. 

“I understand, Darth Baras can be very convincing. Let us return to the ship. We will not speak of this to anyone.” Her face was an impenetrable mask. What had happened? Why did she not kill him?

He thought he understood in the following week. During the ground assault on Corellia, she had actually dragged him along, instead of leaving him on the ship. The message was clear. ‘I want you where I can keep an eye on you.’  
He had tried to apologise of course. The look she gave him was worse than a force choke and cut him off effectively. They did not speak any words in private after that. During the assault, she was every inch the Emperor’s Wrath. She cut a path through the Green Jedi Enclave with a ferocity he had hardly ever seen on her. So this was his punishment. To be near her, admire her, yet being shunned and waiting for her final judgement while slowly roasting in the purgatory of his own failure. What would it be? Would she execute him herself? Give him to Vette for blaster target practice? Or, to add insult to injury, let Lieutenant Pierce throw him out of the airlock? 

He had a lot of time for regret, while they had been on Corellia. As torture goes, it was subtle and exquisite. Darth Baras was despicable, but he had been a fine teacher and Lord Nya Malice had always preferred subtlety over raw violence. It was one of the things that had first attracted him to her. Power corrupts and many Lords of the Sith were so corrupted by their power, they were nothing but sadistic maniacs. Very few could handle power and stay sane and Lord Malice was one of them. Oh she was loyal to the Empire, but she did things her own way, dispatching enemies with ruthless efficiency, but never hurting innocents. Some had misunderstood that for weakness. They usually did not live long enough to regret it.  
She was fair, even generous to those who were loyal to her. She had supported him to get rid of his nemesis, Moff Broysc. And Vette was bragging, that after being given the Twi’lek slave by Darth Baras, the first thing Nya Malice did was to free her, hoping for her to stay on her own accord. For him, Lord Malice represented the best a Sith Lord could be and he adored her. It had taken all his resolve to reject her advances. It had eaten him alive, to come to love her and know that eventually he would have to betray her.

The agony was about to end. She had called him to his quarters.  
“Quinn, we need to talk.”  
She was sitting with her back to him at her desk, when he entered. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, didn’t turn around, did not greet him or offer him anywhere to sit down, so he just stood by the door, shifting uncomfortably.  
Not that there was anywhere to sit down. He had never been in here before. Apart from the holodesk and the chair where she was sitting, there was only the wide bed and a free space set up for meditations. Not exactly lavish.  
He couldn’t bear the silence any longer. “My Lord, please forgive me, I…”

She cut him off with a gesture. “Quinn, when I said, we need to talk, I meant I talk and you listen.” Her voice sounded different. Quieter. Some tone in there, he could not claim to understand.  
“I never told you how I became Darth Baras’ apprentice, did I?” Her hands were absently playing with a small trinket.  
“I was brought to Korriban for the trials by Overseer Tremel. He saw potential in me, trained me, sent me into the hardest trials so I would succeed and become stronger. He was a good man. Harsh, but fair and an excellent teacher.  
Of course, Baras hated his guts and he hated me. He had his own favourite, an acolyte named Vemrin. I will spare you the details, but I killed him in the trials, along with some friends of his that he set against me. None of this was my choice, it is simply how Sith are made. Kill or be killed, only the most skilled and ruthless can come out on top. And I did come out on top.”  
She fell silent for a moment. He could now see that the trinket was a ring of some sort.  
“So, after defeating all the other students and being the only successful acolyte, Darth Baras gives me a final test, to become his apprentice. Kill Overseer Tremel and bring his hand as proof.”

“You see the brilliance in this? If Tremel was successful in training the best acolyte, he would not be alive to enjoy his success. If he would have killed me he would had to live with his failure. In any case, Darth Baras would win and Overseer Tremel would lose. This was never about me. I was just a tool.  
You know the rest. This is Tremel’s ring. The day I received it, was the day I vowed, to do all it takes to become strong enough to one day kill Darth Baras. That was long before he decided to dispose of me.”

She took a breath.  
“Quinn, I know how Baras thinks. I knew that the only reason he could have to place you on my ship would be as his agent. And I know you well enough, that you would not go back on a word once given, even if it would kill you. I could feel your conflict. I thought I had it all figured out and so I dutifully walked into your little trap. There was a small chance it might have killed me. It would most definitely kill you. At least that is what I thought.”

He felt his heart drop. “But… why… how…?”

She made an odd little sound. “Quinn, you really do not understand how the force works, do you? We are driven by our passion, fuelled by hate and rage in battle. That is after all what you had prepared your little ambush for. In hindsight I admire your tactical brilliance. It took me days to figure out why it didn’t work as planned. No, that is wrong. I figured it out right away, it just took me so long to accept it.”

Slowly she turned around to face him and he caught his breath. Her eyes were red, as if she had been crying.  
Sith Lords don’t cry, he thought. Never.  
It hurt see her like this. He wished he could just take her in his arms, but that was out of the question of course.

“You see how brilliant Darth Baras’ plan was? He realised that I was attracted to you, right when he introduced us on Balmorra. He was not content to just eliminate me, he wanted me to suffer. And I must admit, I was surprised to realise, it worked rather well. Despite me figuring out the plan and your involvement. In short, yes I knew I walked into a trap, confidently so, after all it was hardly the first time. What I did not expect was, that it hurt so damn much!”

Nya gave him an odd little smile.  
“You know why you and I are both still alive? Your calculations for your droids were absolutely correct and would have worked in any other situation, but there was one thing neither you nor I did take into account. But that is how the force works, we take our emotions and turn it into a weapon…”

She stood up and took a deep breath.

“Quinn, what I’m trying to say here is, we’re both still alive because I love you, you traitorous bastard!  
I forgive you for being Baras’ tool and we both get our vengeance! And now you better kiss me or I chuck you out of the airlock!”

She did not have to ask twice.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion…


End file.
